I installed my OME springs and N91S shocks today on my 4runner and have a question and possible problem.

The top bolt is tightened all the down and will not tighten anymore but with the shock/spring assembly installed I can rotate the dust cover on the shock inside the spring. It has a slight amount of drag but can be rotated.

Also when I unload the spring/stuck by jacking the runner up by the frame there is a 1/4" maybe a little more of a gap above the top of the shock dust cover and the rubber bushing.

Is this slack normal ??

 

which springs do you have? I have the 882's and have no extra space what-so-ever.

 

I'm running 883 springs. My main concern is when the wheel becomes unloaded (hitting a bump) the shaft is going to slide a little bit (1/4" maybe a touch more) through the top of the strut mount. And over time I wonder if this will cause a "hammering effect"

One thing to mention is I bought new strut mounts from Toyota. My old ones had serious rot on the rubber. Well on the new ones they have a 1" rubber bushing inside the bottom that isn't on the old ones.

When I put together the the 883s and the N91s I could not get the bottom rubber bushing they provide to fit inside. With it combine with the 1" bushing toyota it putting on the new shock mounts there wasn't enought thread to mount the top bushing and cap.

So I mounted it in this order. On top of the shock is the dust cap---The metal washer---into the strut mount with a bushing the same size as the one OME provides-then the top bushing---top washer---- and cap nut. Because of length I was forced to omit the bottom bushing provided by OME BUT the bushing that Toyota has put in the new strut mounts is same size.



Any thoughts ??

 

there should be no gap and the strut should be extended when it has not yet been mounted. meaning, the coils extend the strut to it maximum extension.

in fact, when installing the strut, a pair of coil spring compressors is needed to be able to install the strut and tighten the top nut of the strut. the total length of the strut-coil combo should be just about right to fit when the lower arm is fully drooped.

the rubber bushing that came with the toyota top plate should not be removed.

 

either that, or you can put teh struts into the vehicle... put your vehicle back on the ground, and that should take the negative load off your struts and put weight on the spring to compress it... you should be able to tighten it more from there...